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There is no necessity to marry in modern dating. Instead, many couples simply go through the motions. Often, singletons meet, then they date and have intimate relations with one another before even one word of commitment is spoken.

Years pass, and it gets to that time when talks of moving in together arise. It makes sense to live together its the next step, right? Youre spending so much time together, so why pay two rents when you could be saving for your future together? Plus, with divorce rates being so high, you want to ensure that you and your partner are 100% right for each other before saying I do.

The reasons for moving in together before engagement or marriage are many. It seems like the logical choice. However, youre actually more likely to get divorced if you move in together before you get married. Heres why.

Couples generally believe living together before marriage is a good way to avoid divorce. However, studies have shown that couples who live together first are actually less satisfied with their marriages and more likely to divorce than couples who do not. This is called the cohabitation effect.

Even marital researchers are confused by this effect because, in theory, moving in together before marriage should reduce the chances of marrying the wrong person. Youll learn more about each other, begin negotiating chores, and get a taste of what married life would be like with your beloved. And its true to a certain extent.

For example, a study in 2018 showed that couples who live together first are less likely to break up in the first year of marriage. This is likely because they spend years negotiating and getting used to living together before entering a marriage. However, this happiness doesnt last long, as couples who live together first are more likely to get divorced later on. In the short term, it seems that living together works, but in the long term, its less effective. Why is that?

The cohabitation effect cant be fully explained through characteristics such as a persons religion, education, or politics.

Although some believe this occurs because those who live together before marriage may be more open to divorce in the first place i.e. they arent religious and have no moral reason for not moving in with their partner research shows that the cohabitation effect cant be fully explained through characteristics such as a persons religion, education, or politics.

This is something Dr. Meg Jay covers in her book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How To Make the Most of Them Now. She writes that when twentysomethings are asked how they ended up moving in with their partner, they often say, It just happened. This is known as sliding, not deciding. Going from dating to cohabitation is often a gradual slope and bears no real commitment. Plus, a real conversation about what it means to move in together rarely occurs.

In fact, moving in together can mean different things to each person and unfortunately, its incredibly common for a couple to have widely different reasons for moving in with their partner. Dr. Jay writes that when women are asked why they want to live with their partner, they are more likely to say they want better access to love. However, when a man is asked, he will often say easier access to sex. Worse still, even after the relationship progresses to marriage, lower levels of commitment still persist.

People have lower standards for a live-in partner than for a spouse.

Another negative side effect of cohabitation is the fact that people have lower standards for a live-in partner than for a spouse something which could be detrimental to your future happiness. Time is a persons most precious commodity, and by lowering standards for a live-in partner, people are simply wasting time theyll never get back. So, if you do decide to move in with your boyfriend and you hope to be married with kids one day its important to ask whether or not this is the person you want to do that with.

Another reason why its important to be intentional is because theres a psychological process that occurs when you make a decision.

According to Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, The very option of being allowed to change our minds seems to increase the chances we will change our minds. When we can change our minds about decisions, we are less satisfied with them. When a decision is final, we engage in a variety of psychological processes that enhance our feelings about the choice we made relative to the alternatives.

Its almost as if getting married once youve already been living together becomes a default mechanism its just the next step. Couples end up sliding into marriage rather than making a purposeful commitment. Plus, without a lifelong commitment, people are able to keep one foot out of the relationship and easily use their get-out-of-jail-free card.

Ultimately, Jordan Peterson defines what cohabitation really is in his book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. He writes: Consider the statement implicit in living together, prior to marriage: Youre good enough to live with, and attractive enough for temporary sexual purposes, but I want to hold open the possibility of trading up if Im fortunate enough to find someone preferable to you (someone sufficiently deluded to accept me as a partner, under such conditions). Contrast that with I am willing to stake my future on our joint integrity, and to risk building a life with you on that foundation. If you had to choose between two potential partners on the basis of those alternate explicitly stated principles one abiding by the former, the other, the latter whom would you choose?

People no longer want to live their lives with boundaries. However, withholding some aspects of a relationship, such as moving in together, may lead to a better outcome in the long run.

If you dont want to wait until marriage to live with your boyfriend, make sure you ask yourself whether the guy youre moving in with would make a good husband and father.Its also important to have the right discussions with your boyfriend before you move in together to ensure youre both on the same page. The last thing you want is to move in with a guy who is only doing so to delay a real commitment to you. But if youve already moved in, its not too late. Have these conversations with your boyfriend now to save yourself from possible heartbreak in the future.

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Living With Your Boyfriend? Your Marriage Is Less Likely To Work ... - Evie Magazine

A good frienda retired professor of science at a prestigious universitydespairingly sent me yet another example of the cancellation of information challenging the woke zeitgeist. The article, which appeared in the influential journal Physics Education Review, claimed that whiteboards collaborate with white organizational culture, where ideas and experiences gain value (become more central) when written down. As if that wasnt ridiculous enough, an even bigger fish, the American Physical Society, not only jumped in to defend the nonsense but stifled contrary opinions put forth by a group of highly credentialed physicists.

It seems that similar outrages occur in academia almost every week. Respected scholars invited to speak on campus are shouted down or chased from the stage by howling packs of indoctrinated students, violent Antifa members are hired to teach at major universities, and highly discriminatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion mandates are inserted into the curriculum, governing documents, and job advertisements.

Illustrating how deeply cancel culture has intruded upon valid intellectual exploration, an anonymous anthropology Ph.D. who goes by the internet pseudonym Stone Age Herbalist recently wrote in a widely circulated UnHerd article:

What seems obvious to the general public that prehistory was a bloody mess of invasions, migrations, battles and conflict is not always a commonplace view among researchers. Worse, the idea that ancient peoples organized themselves among clear ethnic and tribal lines is also taboo. Obvious statements of common sense, such as the existence of patriarchy in the past, are constantly challenged and the general tone of academia is one of refutation: both of established theories and thinkers and of disagreeable parts of the past itself.

His lament suggests that the emerging consensus among academic anthropologists has become preposterous. Everything we know about primitive people, both long dead and alive today, indicates that the sort of social organization describedethnic, tribal, and patriarchalis pretty much universal. Yet that apparent verity conflicts with the majority views in todays anthropology departments; in some, such observations cannot even be expressed, let alone defended.

Such thinking sounds the death knell for truth and knowledgeand yet it prevails throughout much of academia. My friends despair was hardly irrational. Yet Sauron has not completely won the whole of Middle Earth. Some hearty contrarian academics still remain, and many of their colleagues, who personally lean to the left, still support an open exchange of ideas. Perhaps more important, small bastions of conservative thought have appeared in the last couple of decades, both inside and outside the academy.

Inside, independent academic centers and institutes that receive outside funding but are still part of the university have, with a few exceptions, proven to be both resilient and effective as far as providing post-doctoral employment for newly minted conservative Ph.D.s until they can find more permanent positions. In part because of these centers, every new conservative Ph.D. of my acquaintance has found appropriate intellectual work, mostly in academia.

Another very hopeful development is a new spirit of engagement with academia by conservative state politicians. Until recently, even in solidly red states, Republican politicians gave wide latitude to public university systems to run their own affairs. In doing so, they turned a blind eye to intellectual realities, and those institutions responded by becoming woke and allying themselves with politicians on the left. Lately, however, there has been serious pushback. For instance, as of May 1, twenty state legislatures have proposed bills disallowing or limiting the use of DEI political litmus tests in the state university systems.

Additionally, some states are restoring the spirit of the open exchange of ideas on their public campuses by mandating debates or discussions featuring multiple perspectives on controversial topics. Florida recently passed a bill that requires public universities to create an Office of Public Policy Events to hold large-scale discussions or debates on major issues on campus. North Carolina has already created a Public Discourse Program for the same purpose at its flagship campus at Chapel Hill and may do something similar for its entire university system.

As promising as these developments are, it is unlikely the academy will become a completely open forum any time soon. Even in a best-case scenario, opinions will not be allowed to stray too far from established norms. There has been too much censorship for too long, too much social disapprobation, with too many factions poised to disrupt events whenever the discussion veers outside the narrow boundaries of their approval.

Furthermore, conservative efforts to date have done little to confront the deep-seated bias in departments, administrations, academic journals, and research funding agencies, where the worst silencing goes on. As the saying goes, personnel is policy, and new hiring continues to move faculty and related staff further into cancel culture. The left will find other means than statements of agreement with DEI principles to winnow out non-conforming jobseekers, and it may take more than a few laws protecting free speech to change the real dialogue on most campuses.

But even if the momentum against openness to differing views continues in the academy, there is growing activity outside the protective walls of the Ivory Tower. Another institution vies to be the leader in public discussion: the internet.

Important ideas are increasingly likely to be introduced on the websites of think tanks or web-based media publications rather than in academic journals. Still, these publications must remain within a certain range of perspectives or face cancellation techniques such as the loss of access to social media.

Most people are familiar with highly visible dissenters who have left tenured academic positions, such as former Evergreen State College biologist Brett Weinstein or former University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson, both of whom now thrive on the internet. But there are some academicssome still working inside the academywhose work goes far beyond current conventions. The above-cited Stone Age Herbalist is one, and he describes how serious scholarship in his field now takes place in a sort of intellectual underground:

For or many of us, anonymity has allowed us to pursue our passion for scholarly research in a way that is simply impossible within the censorious confines of modern academia. And so, in these hidden places, professional geneticists, bio-archaeologists and physical anthropologists have created a network of counter-research. Using home-made software, spreadsheets and private servers, detailed and rigorous work is conducted away from prying eyes and hectoring voices.

The internet has made it possible for even the most unique scholars to promote their ideas to the broader public. Another anonymous internet intellectualthe outrageous Bronze Age Pervertself-published a book (Bronze Age Mindset) in 2018 that burst through the barrier that separates the wishful world of self-published writers and the lucrative world of celebrated authors. To many younger scholars in academia, tired of the boundaries imposed on them, his book was seen as intriguingif not thrilling. To more established intellectuals, it was seen as ill-conceived and threatening, although more than a few found it worthy of real analysis.

With so many new entrants into the world of ideas outside of traditional sources, academias stranglehold on the national discourse may be broken, and the Ivory Tower itself may be forced to open up. But that is only if the current freedom to exchange ideas continues. What the future brings is anybodys guess; the future of the intellectual life of the nation comes down to a question of power: Who controls the dialogue?

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Where To, Academic Man? - The American Conservative

The recruiting trail is about to heat up with summer official visits set to begin in earnest this weekend. Heres one thought on the 2024 class of each Big 12 program before the pot gets boiling.

National rank: 45 Number of commits: 5 Average player rating: 86.32

The Bears have understandably hit the home state hard, with four of the five commitments coming from Texas thus far. But Baylor is also hoping to dip into Arizona for three-star tight end Dillon Hipp. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound prospect and top tight end in the state has a busy June with four official visits: Ole Miss, Arizona State, TCU and Baylor. Fortunately for the Bears, theyre batting cleanup, with Hipp slated to visit Waco on June 23.

National rank: 63 Number of commits: 4 Average player rating: 84.71

The Cougars are working hard to land a quarterback in the 2024 class. BYU missed out on four-star prospect Isaac Wilson to in-state rival Utah, which stung even worse considering hes the younger brother of former BYU star Zach Wilson. Regardless, Kalani Sitake and his staff have a couple more irons in the fire, including three-star Carson Suesue, who made an unofficial visit in March and will transfer to Granger High School in Salt Lake City for his senior year. The Cougars are also pursuing unrated Enoch Watson, the younger brother of incoming BYU linebacker Pierson Watson.

National rank: 21 Number of commits: 9 Average player rating: 87.13

Can the Bearcats maintain their white-hot start to the 2024 recruiting cycle? Despite being the only team in the league to undergo a coaching change this offseason, the Big 12 newcomers currently have a top-25 class that ranks second in the conference. Thats partially a result of already having nine commits, headlined by four-star, top-300 linebacker Qua Birdsong. The rankings will change drastically between now and the early signing period, but it will be interesting to see what else the Bearcats can add this summer and where they wind up in the league pecking order. One of Cincinnatis top remaining targets is four-star quarterback Samaj Jones out of Philadelphia, who has visits scheduled with West Virginia, Cincinnati and Oklahoma in June.

National rank: 90 Number of commits: 1 Average player rating: 84.52

Are we going to see a P5 recruiting bump for the Coogs? Houston currently has the 90th-ranked class nationally dead last in the new Big 12 with only one commit. The Cougars have long had to battle the Group of 5 stigma while recruiting against power-conference foes in one of the most talent-rich states in the country. It will take some time to roll back that ocean, but Houston fans were probably hoping for a quicker impact and faster start on the trail following a disappointing season in 2022. The program needs to come out of the summer visit sessions with some notable progress.

National rank: 31 Number of commits: 7 Average player rating: 85.83

Matt Campbell is getting back to his old development ways. The Cyclones arent completely shying away from bigger swings, including four-star wideout Witt Edwards, who is scheduled to visit in June, and battles with Oklahoma for tight end Cooper Alexander and running back Xavier Robinson. But they are also targeting less-heralded prospects such as in-state receiver Reece Vander Zee, Florida wideout Shamar Rigby, Illinois linebacker Cael Brezina and Brent and Wade Helton, twin offensive linemen out of California. All are expected to make official visits to Iowa State in June.

National rank: 54 Number of commits: 5 Average player rating: 86.62

A few months after Jayhawks defensive backs coach Jordan Peterson scored a commitment from cornerback Jacoby Davis out of Houston just before national signing day, Peterson is continuing to flex his recruiting muscles. He helped Kansas earn a top-four spot for three-star edge rusher Deshawn Warner out of the Phoenix area, and already got a commitment from three-star cornerback Aundre Gibson, Warners teammate and cousin. Peterson is also dipping back into Texas to pursue high-end three-star defensive back Rodney Bimage, who has a 247Sports crystal ball to Texas A&M but will visit Lawrence on June 15.

National rank: 34 Number of commits: 6 Average player rating: 87.25

The vibes are good in Manhattan. The Wildcats are fresh off a 2022 conference championship and locked up head coach Chris Klieman with an eight-year extension this offseason. So theres little sense of panic as Kansas State eases into the 2024 class, although a shuttered airport wont help matters this summer. With a handful of offensive commits in tow, the Wildcats are targeting a pair of high-end three-star edge rushers in Caleb Redd and Wyatt Gilmore, with Redd slated to visit in late June.

National rank: 28 Number of commits: 6 Average player rating: 91.01

Brent Venables caught his share of flack for a slow start to the 2023 recruiting cycle, and all he had to show for it in the end was a top-four class, according to the 247Sports Composite. The Sooners are already off to a solid start in 2024, and despite recently losing four-star, in-state defensive lineman Xadavien Sims to Oregon, they have a stacked list of defensive targets on the radar. Oklahoma appears to be in the drivers seat for five-star defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri, No. 3 overall in the 2024 class, and is pursuing a few other five-star, top-10 recruits in defensive lineman and Oklahoma native David Stone and linebacker Sammy Brown. All three are expected to be in Norman for official visits June 16-18.

GO DEEPER

Wasserman: How a visit with Brent Venables changed my view on Oklahoma's 'no-visit' policy

National rank: 35 Number of commits: 6 Average player rating: 87.09

After a rocky end to the 2022 season and considerable talent drain via the transfer portal this offseason, the Pokes could use a strong haul in the 2024 class. Oklahoma State is currently ranked a very respectable 35th overall, but like BYU, also missed out on Wilson, the four-star quarterback who committed to Utah. In better news, the Cowboys were in early on promising three-star offensive lineman Ory Williams, who visited in April, and appear to be in good position on three-star safety David Kabongo, who has set a commitment date for June 12 with an official visit scheduled in Stillwater a couple of days later.

GO DEEPER

Why TCU hit a five-star home run with three-star QB prospect Hauss Hejny

National rank: 50 Number of commits: 4 Average player rating: 88.14

Expectations are soaring for the Horned Frogs coming off a left-field run to the national title game, and TCU is hoping to capitalize on that momentum while also replenishing a ton of lost production. How soon (and significantly) will the boost in profile show up in recruiting? The Frogs made the top five for four-star safety Jordon Johnson-Rubell, a Fort Worth native playing for IMG (Fla.) Academy. The good news for TCU is that it has a hometown advantage, and Johnson-Rubell is slated for an official visit on June 8. The bad news is the Frogs are competing with Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and USC. This will be a tough one to win, but seeing TCU in more of these blue-chip battles is an encouraging step.

National rank: 64 Number of commits: 3 Average player rating: 88.40

A year removed from signing 18 total blue-chip prospects in the 2023 class which was ranked third overall and headlined by five-star quarterback Arch Manning the Longhorns have just three commits and only one four-star in the 2024 class thus far. But things are set to ratchet up in a big way, particularly June 23-25. Texas is expected to host at least a dozen priority targets that weekend, including four-star offensive lineman Daniel Calhoun; in-state cornerbacks Kobe Black (five-star) and Selman Bridges (four-star); four-star running back Jerrick Gibson; and five-star, in-state edge rusher Colin Simmons, a top-five overall recruit. The Longhorns are hovering in the mid-60s of the national rankings and toward the bottom of the conference, but thats sure to look considerably different entering July.

National rank: 19 Number of commits: 9 Average player rating: 88.21

Head coach Joey McGuire has the Red Raiders cooking again on the recruiting trail as he enters his second season, currently with a top-20 national ranking in the 2024 class. Of Techs nine commitments thus far, three are top-500 prospects, including four-star edge Cheta Ofili and three-star QB Will Hammond. The Red Raiders are also heavily in the mix for five-star, in-state receiver Micah Hudson, currently rated the seventh-best prospect in the 2024 class. He has an official visit scheduled to Lubbock on June 9, when Tech will look to make a strong impression ahead of his visit to the Longhorns later that month.

National rank: 51 Number of commits: 4 Average player rating: 88.05

Top-500 defensive lineman Sincere Edwards is currently the highest-rated commit of UCFs 2024 class. The Orlando native has been committed to his hometown school since last August, but it will be interesting to see if the Knights can hold on to him as his interest continues to grow. Edwards took an unofficial visit to Pitt in April that clearly resonated (with an assist from Aaron Donald) and announced he would be back for an official visit in late June. He remains committed to UCF and has an OV June 9, and getting him to campus wont be a problem. But the sharks are circling.

National rank: 69 Number of commits: 3 Average player rating: 85.56

The Mountaineers are bringing up the rear of the current recruiting rankings among the leagues incumbent members, but they do seem to have some things in the works. Theyre locked in a battle with old rival and new conference foe Cincinnati for Jones, the four-star quarterback out of Philadelphia. WVU might have the advantage, too: Jones is slated to visit this weekend along with high-end three-star wide receiver and high school teammate Brandon Rehmann, with whom the Mountaineers appear to be in a good spot.

(Photo of Steve Sarkisian: Scott Wachter / USA Today)

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Big 12 football recruiting: 14 thoughts on 14 teams as summer visits begin - The Athletic

What do the composer John Tavener, political strategist Steve Bannon and psychologist-cum-guru Jordan Peterson have in common? All have been influenced by Traditionalism: the idea that nature, human societies and individual lives are all grounded in a primordial order beyond the visible world, to which esoteric teachings passed down across centuries afford access for the initiated. It emerged in the first half of the 20th century through the writing of Ren Gunon, a French intellectual who regarded Sufism, Taoism and Indias Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy as amongst the most valuable carriers of this precious wisdom. Public, communal exoteric religion, by contrast Confucianism; Christianity, especially in its modern Protestant forms had little or nothing to recommend it, thought Gunon, unless one was able to penetrate to the esoteric core.

One of Traditionalisms great attractions, across the 20th century and into the 21st, has been the contrast that it draws between what Mark Sedgwick, in this new survey, describes as sacred order and modern disorder. The latter, for Gunon, is the result of societies seeking truth in all the wrong places since the Renaissance: individualism, sentimentality, a reflexive and destructive scepticism, and a fascination with action and material gain. All this, combined with a vision of reality in which nothing that is inaccessible to the sciences is held (or even permitted) to exist, has meant that Western progress is really a steady drift away from truth.

As Sedgwick points out, this critique of modernity is hardly unique to Traditionalism. What Traditionalism offers, however, is a combination of critique and an alternative way of understanding reality. This, he thinks, has contributed to its unexpected resurgence in recent years. Twenty years ago, Sedgwick regarded Traditionalism as being in decline. Now that it has made a come-back in politics not least in Russia, where Aleksandr Dugin (Putins brain) is a fan it is time, he says, to offer a general introduction.

Sedgwick brings an admirable clarity to the task. His prose is economical and he provides mini-summaries as he goes along. Following a section on foundations, he introduces the three major concerns (or core projects) of Traditionalism: self-realisation, religion and politics. He looks, too, at this loose-knit movements interest in art, gender, nature and inter-faith dialogue, before moving on to its connections with the contemporary radical Right. Along the way, we encounter major contributors to Traditionalist thought: the Italian philosopher Julius Evola, controversial for his links to Mussolini and Nazism; the Swiss philosopher and scholar of religion Frithjof Schuon; and the Ceylonese-American philosopher of art Ananda Coomaraswamy, whose work was driven by Traditionalisms concern with Platonic forms and its faith in the revelatory power of symbols.

The blending, in Traditionalism, of romance, nostalgic longing, hierarchy and elitism undoubtedly merits careful handling all the more so since political thinkers from Bannon and Dugin to counterparts in France and Hungary began to show an interest in it, and in Evola in particular. Plus, as Sedgwick points out, previous introductions to Traditionalism have been marred by an attempt to recruit people to [the] cause. Still, his caution, while laudable, is occasionally frustrating. There is less showcasing of the major ideas than one might hope. What exactly are these metaphysical realities in which Traditionalism places such great store? What forms might initiation take? When we arrive at political applications of Traditionalism, sustained exploration loses out to catch-all use of the term problematic in its euphemistic contemporary sense of something wrong or unpleasant.

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The unfashionable idea that links Jordan Peterson and 'Putin's brain' - The Telegraph

Yeonmi Park: In North Korea, every room has to have a portrait of the Kims. The inspector comes out of nowhere in the middle of the night and touches the portraits. If they see any dust... you can get executed.

Joe Rogan: [shakes head] Wow.

This isnt a meme, but a real (slightly abridged) exchange taken from a 2021 episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast. You might have seen it pop up on your social media feeds lately, alongside clips of the North Korean defector talking to Joe Rogan about Chinese organ harvesting, or telling right-wing hack Jordan Peterson about eating tons of grasshoppers to survive life in the dictatorship. Youve probably also seen the memes being shared in response to her unbelievable stories. Yeonmi is a CIA-funded propagandist, they claim, or Yeonmi is scamming wide-eyed westerners with tales from beyond the DPRKs iron curtain for financial gain. Are they wrong?

Born in North Korea, Yeonmi Park fled with her family to China in 2007, at the age of 13, and settled in South Korea in 2009. Five years later, she would move to the United States to work as a human rights activist, spreading the story of her defection at events such as the 2014 One Young World summit in Dublin.

The problem is, Yeonmis tall tales have varied over the years, littered with factual inaccuracies and... poetic licence. How could this happen? Its a question on many peoples lips as she surges back into the spotlight following the publication of her most recent book, While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America. Wouldnt she remember whether her father escaped with the rest of the family, or was left behind to minimise the risks? And how did she forget about the concept of ice cream?

Below, we dive into some of Yeonmi Parks wildest stories of life in North Korea, and why defectors are incentivised to embellish their suffering under the rule of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

Undeniably, there are many facts of life in North Korea that would be shocking to people on the outside, from the countrys travel restrictions, to its human rights abuses, to its dependence on a growing nuclear arsenal (not to mention the governments totalitarian approach to fashion and hatred of K-pop). Its worth noting, though, that theres also a significant financial incentive to share increasingly shocking stories filled with unsavoury details.

Back in 2017, the South Korean government quadrupled the reward it pays North Korean defectors for useful information on the regime, to just under 700,000. In both South Korea and the US, meanwhile, bestselling memoirs and sensational speaking engagements help convert trauma into cash and they might be a good way to spread information about life in North Korea, if they werent undermined by factual inaccuracies.

Its convenient that Yeonmi mostly addresses already-outraged crowds of Americans and credulous public intellectuals like Peterson, because she often gives the impression that shes making stories up on the fly, responding to questions with a remarkable flair for yes, and... improv.

This would explain some of the contradictions in her narration of events in North Korea. For example, her frequently-recited story about the execution of her best friends mother for watching forbidden media. In some stories, she reports that the media was a South Korean DVD, and the act took place in a stadium. Other times, though, its changed to a James Bond film or a nameless Hollywood blockbuster, and the woman was killed in the street. Either way, its an incredibly dark tale, but its also surprising that shed forget the details of such a formative event. Plus, experts have expressed doubt that such an extreme punishment fits the crime, even in North Korea.

In other appearances, Yeonmis stories are simply improbable. See: her claim on the Joe Rogan Podcast that North Korea only has one train, which runs once a month, and when it breaks down the passengers have to get out and (somehow, despite train carriages typically weighing more than 15 tonnes) push it where they want to go. Or the claim that all of North Koreas plants mysteriously turn poisonous in springtime, and the population is left to feed deadly mud to their children.

Many of Yeonmis more dubious claims have even been shot down by fellow defectors, while commentators on the region have criticised her for her tendency to muddle her message with this nakedly partisan punditry.

One post that has particularly captured the internets imagination (read: sparked numerous memes) over the last week is on the tamer end of the spectrum. Under a picture of her posing outside a Jenis Ice Creams shop, Yeonmi writes: When I was in North Korea, there was no such a concept as dessert. Now I cannot imagine a world without these goodies.

Admittedly, I cannot imagine a world without goodies, either. However, it seems unlikely that Yeonmi never actually stumbled across an ice cream during her time in North Korea, since they did actually exist as evidenced in travel blogs and images from the early 2000s.In 2022, Kim Jong Un himself even took special measures to speed up the construction of a new ice cream factory.

Thats the question... According to Yeonmi herself, many of her mistakes were the result of a language barrier when she was still learning English. In a response to a 2014 article in the Diplomat, she added: I apologise that there have been times when my childhood memories were not perfect, saying that she was cross-checking details with her mum as she authored her first book.

Naturally, these disclaimers arent good enough for many internet sceptics, who point to the Wests long tradition of using defectors as propaganda mouthpieces (a tactic thats been employed in North Korea, as well). Many have suggested that Yeonmi is one such psy-op, as well as pointing out ties to shady organisations like the Atlas Network.Others have even speculated that her outrageous claims are being used by DPRK sympathisers to undermine other defectors accounts of their suffering.

In case you havent noticed, Yeonmi Park has found a significant audience with right-wing figures and more conservative-leaning pundits. This might not be surprising she presents a perfect opportunity to *own the commies* but their inane culture wars drivel does, unfortunately, seem to have rubbed off on Yeonmi herself.

Yes, Yeonmi is now slamming cancel culture at Americas Ivy League universities in articles for the Telegraph. In one interview, she complains that her lessons at Columbia demonised capitalism, taught her that maths is racist, and claimed anything that was white was bad, comparing the university to a North Korean classroom. Elsewhere, she decries the woke tyranny of Western culture, saying: Even North Korea isnt this crazy. (Comparing the US to North Korea: based. Doing it because you dont like what theyre teaching in schools, instead of the states shared love of incarceration and nuclear aggression: sadly, cringe.)

According to yet another Joe Rogan interview clip, this swing toward the right-wing was prompted by an incident during the George Floyd protests in 2020, when she was allegedly robbed by three Black woman, and stopped from calling the police by a crowd of 20 white bystanders. Apparently, that was the catalyst for her speaking out and becoming a self-proclaimed enemy of the woke not necessarily the most objective viewpoint for gathering useful intel.

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Yeonmi Park: is the DPRK defector a western psy-op? - Dazed